Author: Jack King and Joyce Lee
SEOUL, Feb 12 (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to be taking steps to solidify his daughter’s position as successor and there are signs she is providing input on policy issues, South Korean lawmakers said on Thursday, citing a spy agency briefing.
Lawmakers said South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) will closely monitor the daughter, believed to be named Kim Ju Ae, to attend an upcoming meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party and her profile, including whether she holds any official titles.
“In the past, the National Intelligence Service described Kim Joo-ae as ‘under study of a successor,’ but the expression used today is that she is ‘in the stage of internally designating a successor,'” Congressman Lee Seong-kwon told reporters after a closed-door briefing by the National Intelligence Service.
Joo Ae, believed to be only a teenager, has become increasingly visible in North Korea’s state media, accompanying her father on on-the-ground instruction, including inspecting weapons programs, and analysts speculate she is being groomed to become the country’s fourth-generation leader.
Lee and fellow lawmaker Park Sun-won said the NIS believes her role in public events shows she has begun providing policy advice and that she is viewed as the de facto second-most leader.
North Korea announced that the Workers’ Party will hold the inaugural meeting of the Ninth Congress at the end of February. Analysts believe that this meeting will announce the main policy objectives in the economy, diplomacy and defense in the next few years.
Park and Ri said leader Kim Jong Un is directing the development of a large submarine that may be able to carry up to 10 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and may be designed to be powered by a nuclear reactor, given the ship’s 8,700-ton displacement.
However, it was unclear whether it would be nuclear-powered or operate as designed, lawmakers said, citing spy agency analysis.
(Reporting by Jack King; Editing by Ed Davis)
